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The Slashdot summary: "In June 1972, Bob Metcalfe, a 26-year-old engineer fresh out of graduate school, joined a new research lab in Palo Alto, Calif., as it set out to build something that few people could even imagine: a personal computer. After another engineer gave up the job, Dr. Metcalfe was asked to build a technology that could connect the desktop machines across an office and send information between them. The result was Ethernet, a computer networking technology that would one day become an industry standard. For decades, it has connected PCs to servers, printers and the internet in corporate offices and homes across the globe.
For his work on Ethernet, the Association for Computing Machinery, the world's largest society of computing professionals, announced on Wednesday that Dr. Metcalfe, 76, would receive this year's Turing Award. Given since 1966 and often called the Nobel Prize of computing, the Turing Award comes with a $1 million prize. When Dr. Metcalfe arrived at the Palo Alto Research Center -- a division of Xerox nicknamed PARC -- the first thing he did was connect the lab to the Arpanet, the wide-area network that later morphed into the modern internet. The Arpanet transmitted information among about 20 academic and corporate labs across the country. But as PARC researchers designed their personal computer, called the Alto, they realized they needed a network technology that could connect personal computers and other devices within an office, not over long distances."
I am really happy to see Bob get this recognition - it is certainly well-earned - and very glad that they gave it to him while he's still alive! Too many very important people in the history of computing did not receive proper acknowledgement of their contributions prior to their death.
The invention of Ethernet was core to networking computers together, we probably wouldn't have the internet in its current form without it. While there are other networking standards, or were - most fell by the wayside - they didn't really have the scalability to connect literally billions of devices together. While I kinda doubt Bob envisioned anything like the internet that we enjoy when he invented it and was working on ARPAnet, it is something to see a technology grow.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/22/technology/turing-award-bob-metcalfe-ethernet.html
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/03/22/1356221/turing-award-won-by-co-inventor-of-ethernet-technology
While Ethernet provides the backbone for the internet, the World Wide Web was invented at CERN in Switzerland in 1989 by Dr. Tim Berners-Lee. It became open to the public two years later. Tim invented the HTTP standard to make it easier for scientists within CERN to share information, and it kinda grew.
For his work on Ethernet, the Association for Computing Machinery, the world's largest society of computing professionals, announced on Wednesday that Dr. Metcalfe, 76, would receive this year's Turing Award. Given since 1966 and often called the Nobel Prize of computing, the Turing Award comes with a $1 million prize. When Dr. Metcalfe arrived at the Palo Alto Research Center -- a division of Xerox nicknamed PARC -- the first thing he did was connect the lab to the Arpanet, the wide-area network that later morphed into the modern internet. The Arpanet transmitted information among about 20 academic and corporate labs across the country. But as PARC researchers designed their personal computer, called the Alto, they realized they needed a network technology that could connect personal computers and other devices within an office, not over long distances."
I am really happy to see Bob get this recognition - it is certainly well-earned - and very glad that they gave it to him while he's still alive! Too many very important people in the history of computing did not receive proper acknowledgement of their contributions prior to their death.
The invention of Ethernet was core to networking computers together, we probably wouldn't have the internet in its current form without it. While there are other networking standards, or were - most fell by the wayside - they didn't really have the scalability to connect literally billions of devices together. While I kinda doubt Bob envisioned anything like the internet that we enjoy when he invented it and was working on ARPAnet, it is something to see a technology grow.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/22/technology/turing-award-bob-metcalfe-ethernet.html
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/03/22/1356221/turing-award-won-by-co-inventor-of-ethernet-technology
While Ethernet provides the backbone for the internet, the World Wide Web was invented at CERN in Switzerland in 1989 by Dr. Tim Berners-Lee. It became open to the public two years later. Tim invented the HTTP standard to make it easier for scientists within CERN to share information, and it kinda grew.
